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Saturday, October 31, 2015

While I myself am in that appropriate
feeling, allow me to write that graduation message to the third batch of Form 5
I am teaching this year.

In 2015, something remarkable happened in
the music industry. As soon as Furious 7 kicked off the silverscreens
worldwide, the entire globe was appalled in awe and tears when Charlie Puth and
Wiz Khalifa's See You Again was
released to the crowd. The most touching movie scene had moved the hearts of
billions, when Dominic Toretto and his crew parted ways with Brian O' Connor,
commemorating the late Paul Walker.

It was indeed a solemn moment, leaving the
movie goers with teary eyes as they made their ways home, pondering about that
scene. "See You Again"
continued to strike the top charts after that. Never did a dramatic action
story is able to put forth a melting personal touch to its audience.

"See
You Again" is truly a phenomenal hit- one of
the best songs ever composed in a contemporary, modern tune.

It is because many of us can relate to this
song.

We all do lose someone in our lives.

We all have that family member or friend
who left us for a long time.

We all have that group of friends who used
to be always there for us, but one fine day, they left for their own future.

We all have that special someone in life
who used to be our sunshine in darkness, but one day we realise, that this
person will not be with you forever.

Graduation is not the exception of it.

I have been through that stage for a few
times as well. As much as it recognises that you are ripe enough to be a more
grown up person, graduation also informs you of another perspective: Time to
leave your friends and move on to another stage. Your classmates will also walk
their own paths too.

Which was why during that graduation night,
I quoted and paraphrased a line from that epic melancholic scene.

And yes, I know I have been expressing a
lot from the Furious 7 finale lately.

"No matter where you are, whether it
is a quarter mile, or half a globe away, the most important thing in life will
always be the people in this room, right here, right now."

I even read it slowly so that everyone
would have the time to guess where I took those words from.

"They are your friends, they are your
teachers, they are your classmates, your companion. Have more fun, laugh more,
take more selfies before you go."

Of all the three years of bidding the Form
Fives farewell, never did I encounter such an emotional goodbye session before.
The tune of "See You Again" continued to haunt me at midnight after
that dinner.

Pictures will be our history of knowing
each other. Those "thank you"s and "I'm sorry"s that I had
this afternoon at my office was an overwhelming one indeed. To tell you the
truth, I was afraid of seeing people crying at my office, therefore I cheered some
of you up as you said your last words as my students.

In return, I would like to say to this
marvellous batch of people:

1. Thank you, 5 Newton for the lukewarm
atmosphere despite your deafening silence and passive learning styles. You are
the first batch of students who got my Borderlands-inspired jokes.

2. Thank you, 5 Adam Smith for your
cooperation with me. My mission in enabling all of you to score above 50 marks
in exams is a success.

3. Thank you, Chung Yee Chen and Yap Bao
Lin. You have brought yourselves up in breaking your own barriers. You have
inspired me to walk further in whatever we do. You show the best
improvement by over 20 marks when compared to the beginning.

6. I know I am not perfect and I do make
mistakes. Here, I would like to apologize for every rude word (if there is) or reckless misconducts
throughout my two years of teaching you. This is just my third year.

Life still goes on. For one month, you will
be SPM candidates. After that agony, you will step up a free person.

Till then, lads. I believe that it's never
a goodbye yet. Because there will always be meet ups and gatherings soon.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

#SPM2014 Result Day was a day of mixed emotion. From a teacher's point of view, not only you are looking forward to your graduated padawans, you are also drooling for their results to determine how successful you were in preparing them. In other words, Form 5 teachers are as if taking a time machine back to their younger days when they took their results.

Looking back on that day, I am grateful for the milestone I have made. In my teaching career, this was my first year whereby I experienced a dramatic change in my Form 5 batch. What made me impressed was the fact when 5 Adam Smith (my class) began to improve in their English 1119 writing ever since they became sensitive in their use of past and present tense. As a result, from their English results, 90% had improved when I compared them to their first semester data. Some I have succeeded in bringing them up from a C to B, while some who were stuck at B, finally scored an A.

Some of them even went beyond extra miles to be crowned as top students of our school. Eventually, they scored more As than mine. Right now, they are entering a new terminal towards their tertiary education, while I am trying to use the same successful methods in improving the current Form 5 batch.